These Deadly Games(69)

Well, technically, the how was clear. I could beckon her to look at something near the edge, and all it would take was one small, unexpected shove. She’d tumble over to the rocks below, hitting her head, breaking her neck, or shattering her spine. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened—every few years, an overzealous photographer or careless selfie-taker slipped off the boulder, plummeting to their death.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Just imagining it was unbearable. But if I didn’t push Akira, An0nym0us1 would slice Caelyn’s neck, and my baby sister would be gone forever, and all I’d done to save her would’ve been for nothing. Matty would’ve died for nothing. Randall’s dad would’ve had a heart attack for nothing. I’d tried so hard to protect Caelyn—playing this sadistic game, vying for the tourney prize money, driving our father away. And now, after everything, I was failing her.

How would I survive knowing I didn’t do all I could to save her?

How would Mom forgive me if I let her die?

How would I forgive myself?

But Akira was also my sister, if not by blood. Even if she wasn’t, she didn’t deserve to die. What made Caelyn’s life worth more than Akira’s? How could anyone make this choice?

“Crystal!” Akira’s sneakers crunched on gravel, and suddenly she was right in front of me, gripping my shoulders, shaking me gently. “Please tell me what’s happening.”

My phone vibrated again. My eyes snapped open, and I instinctively scrambled away from her, closer to the edge. “I can’t.” There was a new picture of Caelyn. No text this time. The knife was still at her throat, but now a thin red slice stretched across her neck. And this time, she was screaming.

Or I was screaming.

I had no idea.

Before I could react, Akira lunged at me and grabbed my phone, leaving hers still clenched in my other fist.

“No!” I cried.

But it was too late. She looked at the picture and gasped. “What the hell?” I grabbed for the phone, and pain shot up my left wrist from the sudden movement. Akira sidestepped me and raised it out of reach. “Is this Caelyn?” She rushed to the other end of the stone wall, trying to swipe to another photo, but there were none. You could only see one photo at a time.

I reached for the phone again. “Give it back—”

“Stop it!” Akira cried, squinting against the frigid drizzle. “Tell me what’s happening.”

I extended my hand, palm outstretched. “Please, give it back.”

“Why won’t you let me help you?” Her lower lip quivered, and she stepped back onto the boulder protruding from the cliff, speckled with dark dots that merged as the rain picked up. We both flipped up our hoods. I eyed the boulder warily, legs wobbling with vertigo. She knew I was afraid of heights. She knew I wouldn’t follow.

“Kiki, please,” I said in a hissed whisper. I couldn’t push her off this rock. “Let’s get out of here.” I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.

She took another step back. “Not until you tell me what the hell’s going on…” Realization dawned on her face, like she was putting together the pieces, constructing the truth for herself. “We were right, weren’t we? Someone’s after us. And this has to do with all that. They’ve got Caelyn. Oh my God, did they threaten you to keep quiet?” Fear gripped my heart. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies. But what if someone else figured it out for themselves?

I couldn’t take that risk. I couldn’t let her see whatever the next message would be.

I edged onto the boulder, shuffling my feet, glancing toward the pine tree tops underneath us, below the boulder. A rush of vertigo surged through me, making my whole body shudder. The freezing rain wasn’t helping. “Just give me my phone, okay?” I held hers out like a peace offering.

“Oh my God,” she said again, my lack of abject denial con firming the truth. Suddenly, she looked at the screen. It must’ve buzzed. Shock filled her eyes, and her mouth dropped open.

My heart plummeted, and panic flooded every capillary in my body. Caelyn. Were my two minutes up? “Oh, God. What is it?” I rushed forward, my terror for Caelyn momentarily outweighing my fear of heights.

Akira screwed up her face and clutched the screen to her chest. “No, don’t look.” What was she protecting me from seeing?

“Give it to me!” I tried to pry my phone from her grip and dropped Akira’s phone in the scuffle. She instinctively shot out her other hand to catch it.

That’s when she lost her balance.

The boulder sloped down behind her and was slick with frozen rain, and she couldn’t regain her footing. Her arms shot forward, and I tried grabbing one of them, but it all happened so fast I caught nothing but air. Still clinging to my phone, eyes frenzied, mouth set in an open, horrified grimace, she tumbled backward. We both shrieked. I crouched, pressing my palms to my ears and squeezing my eyes shut as her scream continued the whole way down.





CHAPTER 30


Akira’s fall seemed to last an eternity, until a cluster of pine trees crackled, and her cry suddenly cut off.

“Kiki!” I dropped onto my hands and knees and considered peering over the edge, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t, there was no edge—the boulder gradually sloped until it was too steep. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, shock penetrating every fiber of my being. My chest heaved like I was about to be sick, and my whole body trembled so hard I feared I’d involuntarily pitch forward and fall, too. My fingers groped at the boulder for something to cling to, but there was nothing, nothing, and Akira couldn’t have survived that fall, and I let out a terrible shriek, hot tears and frigid rain mingling on my face.